News

Radio Amateurs of Canada in the Black

Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) President Geoffrey Bawden, VE4BAW, told the RAC’s Annual General Meeting in his Report to RAC Members last month that the organization is solvent.

“After two and a half years of hard work, RAC is on a firm financial footing,” Bawden said. At the 2010 Annual General Meeting, Bawden had raised the specter of financial failure. “We were insolvent and on the very brink of bankruptcy,” he said. “We needed to slash expenditures and increase revenues.” At the October Annual General Meeting Bawden said that “the risk of bankruptcy and dissolution is receding.”

Bawden urged a positive stance. Spectrum threats, antenna and mobile radio restrictions, and other challenges “are, at the end of the day, a function of public indifference to Amateur Radio,” Bawden said.

“Regulators take their cues from politicians; politicians take their cues from the public. The good news is that there are more hams than ever, and we hams are providing more community support than ever. We need to profile ourselves to the public without embarrassment or self effacement.